An update

My Mother was scheduled for an angiogram last week, so I decided to go back to Kelantan to accompany her while she’s recuperating. I took an Air Asia flight on Wednesday morning. My sister, Kak Ze waited for me at the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport in Pengkalan Chepa. From the airport, we went to my eldest sister’s house nearby, which was where my Mother was staying. After breakfast, we made our way to Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian and arrived there at around 9.30 am.

We were not familiar with HUSM as previously my Mother had her treatments at KBGH or KBMC. We didn’t know that despite having booked an appointment, my Mother would have to wait hours to see the doctor. We joined other patients and their families in the waiting room and since it’s a cardiology centre, most patients were the elders. The waiting was quite tough on my Mother and finally, when she was exhausted from sitting down, she lied down on the chairs in the waiting area. Eventually, she was ushered into the doctor’s room at around 2.30pm. Some tests followed and after collecting her medicines from the pharmacy, we were done. By then, it was already 3.30 pm.

The angiogram had to be postponed to 27 March because my Mother’s blood pressure was very low.

That night, we slept at my sister’s house. My Mother complained about unbearable pain in her thigh, so the next day we called her doctor at KBMC. He told her to take panadols and if that didn’t work, to buy some painkillers from KBMC. The pain didn’t subside despite the panadols, massages and ‘tungku’, so my Mother decided that she wanted to see an ustaz who is a popular healer in Kelantan.

Apparently the ustaz learns from a renowned religious scholar and healer in Malaysia. He is also a lecturer at the Maktab Perguruan Kota Bharu (MPKB), so we felt quite confident with him. After asar prayers, we went to his house in the staff quarters at MPKB. By then, there were already a handful of visitors there.

The ustaz recited some verses from the Quran and gave my Mother a list of the surahs for her to recite at home. That night we went back to my Mother’s house in Rantau Panjang and my sisters helped her to recite the surahs. Alhamdulillah, the pain in her thigh subsided.

The next morning, my Mother took a walk to our neighbour’s house. She managed to get there and back, which is not a small feat, as previously she couldn’t even walk past the gate.

She will see the ustaz again before her scheduled angiogram on 27 March. She’s having second thoughts about the angiogram now as she’s feeling better. However, whether she will go through with it depends on her health in the next couple of weeks. For me, I’m just happy that she’s not in pain now.